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He revealed his intentions to the Commander-in-Chief of his army, Kritantavadan. The Chief prepared a chariot and requested Sitaji, “Devi! You have a desire to go on a pilgrimage, the chariot is ready for you so kindly come and be seated”. Sitaji not suspecting anything, settled down in the chariot. The Chief drove the chariot to the middle of a jungle and then abruptly stopped, “Brother! Why have you stopped here? There is no ‘teerth' in sight here!” The Chief had tears in his eyes. He related everything to her. It was a very dense, uninhabited jungle. One could hear roars of violent, wild animals all around, the creeping movements of poisonous snakes could be heard and it was an uncertainty whether she would survive even one night in such a ruthless place. Sitaji was being abandoned, to be all alone in this terrible jungle, while she was pregnant. Who should be consoling whom? Should the Chief be consoling Sitaji or should Sitaji be consoling the Chief?
The amazing thing was that on realizing her own mistake, Sitaji calmed the Chief down, who was still crying, “Brother! Why are you crying? It is not your fault. You are just carrying out your duty by obeying your master's order, which is also my duty as a wife. How can you blame even the master? He is just performing his duty of satisfying his subjects who he rules over. Why even blame the subjects? These are the same subjects who had hailed me earlier, by such names as “Jagadamba', ‘Mahasati”, “Sita Maiya’. No
Teerth = a place of pilgrimage Jagadamba = The Goddess Durga Sita Maiya = Mother Sita
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